This application claims priority from Korean Patent Application No. 1999-12353 filed on Jun. 30, 1999, Korean Patent Application No. 1999-55575 filed on Dec. 7, 1999, and Korean Patent Application No. 1999-59320 filed on December 20, 1999, the entirety of each of which is hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes as if fully set forth therein.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a mobile telephony station, and more particularly, to a mobile telephony station with a speaker phone function.
2. Background of the Related Art
Recently, due to active sales of mobile telephony stations, use of mobile telephony stations is widespread without restriction on area, time and space. However, mobile telephony stations with a speaker phone function are not widespread. Because of this, the user experiences inconvenience in the use of the mobile telephony station, and can not carry out other work during a conversation, as the user must hold the mobile telephony station in hand during the conversation if the user does not uses an earphone. And, sometimes, there are cases when a call should be made by using the mobile telephony station during a meeting, which should be heard by all the participants of the meeting. However, unless other equipment is employed, this is not possible as the mobile telephony station has no speaker function. Because of this need, there has been a mobile telephony station with a speaker phone function suggested recently, wherein only one speaker is provided to be used in a receiver mode of a telephone as usual and in a speaker phone mode. The mobile telephony station with the speaker phone function provided with one speaker requires an additional key for enabling the speaker phone function. And, in order to make the speaker to serve both for the receiver function and the speaker phone function, the speaker should be placed in a receiver position (facing a user""s ear) of the mobile telephony station, and the speaker should be high powered, requiring the speaker to be large sized. Accordingly, the mobile telephony station also should be large sized. And, because the one speaker is used both in the receiver mode and in the speaker phone mode, if the user puts the mobile telephony station close to his or her ear while the mobile telephony station is in the speaker phone mode, mistakenly thinking that the mobile telephony station is in the regular telephone receiver mode, then the loud sound from the speaker will surprise the user.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a mobile telephony station with a speaker phone function that substantially obviates one or more of the problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
An object of the present invention is to provide a mobile telephony station with a speaker phone function, in which the speaker phone function can be selected automatically by opening a flip cover, in a setting mode, or by using a toggle switch.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a mobile telephony station with a speaker phone function, having a minimum size.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a mobile telephony station with a speaker phone function, which can forward a sound from the speaker to the outside of the mobile telephony station even if the mobile telephony station is put on a floor, with a speaker side face of the mobile telephony station faced down.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a mobile telephony station with a speaker phone function, which permits the user to make communication with another party while performing daily schedule management or making a note via the mobile telephony station, and allows many people to have a teleconference communication regardless of place or time.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.
To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purposes of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, a mobile telephony station with a speaker phone function includes a flip cover movably fitted to a body, a sensor switch for sensing opening/closing of the flip cover, and a controller for switching to a speaker phone mode if the sensor switch senses that the flip cover is opened.
In another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a mobile telephony station with a speaker phone function including a controller for controlling general operation of the mobile telephony station and carrying out the speaker phone function according to a state of a sensor switch for sensing opening/closing of the flip cover, a selecting switch, or a menu selection, a CODEC for receiving, and demodulating a digitized, compressed and modulated audio signal into an original signal, and converting it into an analog signal, and compressing, modulating, and digitizing an analog audio signal to be transmitted into a state required for transmission under control of the controller, a duplex controller for selectively receiving/forwarding only one of the audio signals received/transmitted from/to the CODEC in the speaker phone mode, a microphone for inputting an audio signal intended to be transmitted into the duplex controller or the CODEC directly, a first speaker for outputting an audio signal received from the CODEC in a regular telephone mode, and a second speaker for outputting an audio signal received through the duplex controller in the speaker phone mode.
In yet another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a mobile telephony station with a speaker phone function including a controller for controlling operation of the mobile telephony station, and to carry out a speaker phone function according to a regular mode or a speaker phone mode selected by a user, a vocoder for receiving and demodulating a compressed and modulated audio signal into an original signal, or receiving, compressing, and modulating an audio signal into a state required for transmission under control of the controller, an audio CODEC for converting a digital received audio signal demodulated by and provided from the vocoder into an analog signal while filtering a noise component added during transmission, converting an analog audio signal to be transmitted into a digital audio signal, and removing an echo between a speaker and the microphone in the speaker phone mode, a microphone for inputting an audio signal into the audio CODEC, a first amplifier for amplifying the audio signal from the audio CODEC to a preset level and presenting it through a receiver in a regular mode under the control of the controller, and a second amplifier for amplifying the audio signal from the audio CODEC to a preset level and presenting it through a speaker for exclusive use in the speaker phone mode under the control of the controller.
In a still further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a mobile telephony station with a speaker phone function including a front panel having a plurality of menu selecting keys for selecting a menu, an LCD panel for displaying various information and messages, a microphone for inputting speech for transmission, and a first speaker for presenting or reproducing received speech, a sensor switch, on the front panel for sensing opening/closing of the flip cover, and a second speaker for selectively presenting or reproducing the received speech, together with the first speaker, depending on a switching state of the sensor switch, to carry out the speaker phone function.
The second speaker is fitted into a recess with a streamlined curvature in horizontal and vertical directions of the back face of the back panel, with a ridge sloped radially around the recess formed in a center portion of the back panel.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.